Forgive me for being so late updating anything and everything. I've been so busy and rushed off my feet for weeks! I have tons and tons and tons of photos to put up in the tales from the budgie aviary thread that I still haven't gotten around to doing. I've been uploading YouTube videos I owe from months ago. Sigh

I have some news. Some good and some bad, but it all ends up being a happy story

My peach faced lovebirds aggression while living as a flock went through the roof. I have absolutely no idea what had gotten into them but for many months (before the hormonal season) they had been horrible to one another. Even birds that were bonded I was having a lot of trouble with. I made the sad decision to rehome a few so I could focus more on Blackjack and Pebbles, as I had had them the longest and bred Pebbles myself. Since Pebbles killed CJ, Apple had become his best friend. They were joined at the hip and never left one another. Although Pebbles and CJ had been raised around us, they had never been quite tame once they hit maturity. I was okay with that as I was able to keep them very happy in the aviary. Pebbles attacked Apple but luckily we were able to separate them before any blood was shed

Apple went to live with a young guy who had a very old cockatiel. I thought she would do best in a pet type home as she was very friendly. He had been looking for a lovie for quite a while and already had a set up for her waiting. Unfortunately, he never stayed in touch

A friend of mine that I met over Facebook had a quite large flock of peach faced lovebirds and I was only recently talking to her about setting up an aviary for them. I asked her if she would be interested in buying Buttons and Berry off me so they could join her aviary flock. She said that that was fine and she would be happy to have them when her aviary was finished

In the time that she was having her aviary built, Pebbles had managed to open the cage that he and Blackjack were in and had let themselves out. I advertised looking for Pebbles but I still haven't had a response to this day. I got Blackjack back though. We don't think he went far as he actually flew down into the out door bird room door way and sat in there waiting for us. He was hungry, but that was about it. Luckily we have plenty of birds out there for him to contact call!

At that point I was at a loss. Blackjack had lost his companion and my only two options were to have him indoors as a companion, which having lived in an aviary for such a long time now I don't think he would have enjoyed, or rehome him. I asked the girl who was willing to take Berry and Buttons if she would consider long-term fostering for me in case I could find him a nice mate

I gathered up Buttons, Berry & Blackjack and took them to their new home. I was blown away with how nice and big the aviary was. Loads of things to do in there but not too cluttered. Fresh food. The girl clearly adored her flock. I spent time getting to know her birds and chatting to them, taking plenty of photos too

I let my guys out and stood in there for about half an hour to watch what they would do. As per, Buttons and Berry were very reserved and didn't do a fat lot. They sat looking very nervous up a corner. After a few minutes they started to explore and look around, greeting the other birds. Some of her birds were defensive but they seemed okay, just a bit confused. Her black masked lovebird was very sweet and kept having a look. He kept preening their tails while they weren't looking, or tried to!

Blackjack had been using a drinker before he came to the aviary because I had to put him in the breeding cage as an emergency, one I use for the budgies. There is room in there but water bowls are impractical. I found that he wouldn't let me mist him and so he hadn't been bathing. The first thing he did was dive straight into the water bowl. It bought tears to my eyes. I was so happy for him that he could be himself

I really didn't want to say goodbye but I had to get home as it was getting late. I am thrilled they have gone to such a nice home! She keeps me updated often. Blackjack has paired up with one of her girls and flirts with everybody. Buttons and Berry still dote on one another and are always together. They have all begun to fit in though!

I have tons of photos I took on my phone and have yet to put them on photobucket so within the next few days I will, and I will put the photos up she sent me too

For now, here's the moment when Blackjack became a duck and when Buttons joined him (please watch in HD as all of my videos are now filmed in 1080p but it doesn't automatically set it to that!)

Sounds like the really made the best move for you and your flock, and I'm so glad you were able to find such a nice home for them! Hopefully Pebbles comes home to you soon, as well. Can't see much of it, but even that one corner of the aviary looks pretty amazing, they seem to have a great set up. That video is adorable.

At the moment I'm just trying to keep in mind what is best for the birds. I have my outdoor aviaries and then an outdoor building keeping some aviaries and breeding cages. The lovebirds, red fronted kakarikis and cockatiels are in that building. The lovebirds weren't happy and I thought if they could have an aviary home then they'd do a lot better, especially if some of them were split (ones that weren't bonded). I'm so happy with their new home though. It's great to see them enjoying themselves and forming bonds with her flock members

My closest friend, who I see at least once a week, is hoping to have an aviary put up within the next couple of months. She asked me if she could buy anything off me and I said well no, I can't think of anything, however I do have the cockatiels and red fronted kakarikis who I no longer intend on breeding. The kakarikis had one clutch and stopped, which is apparently quite common in captive kaks and one of the cockatiels is definitely infertile but I don't want to split up the pair. I love them all dearly and I don't know if I can bring myself to rehome them, especially since Ziggy is a spitting image of Joey and still repeats phrases Joey used to say to me. That cripples me. I will most likely be keeping the cockatiels because of this but it would be excellent for the red fronted kakarikis to have such a nice large aviary to themselves. It's not because they won't breed, I have plenty of birds who won't breed for me It doesn't bother me in the slightest. But, if she can offer such an active species more space then I'm definitely up for letting her have them I never got my other pair of kakarikis back off my ex, and he sold my linnies, so I will be kakariki-less for the time being but I hope that when I move home I can have an aviary large enough for a small flock of them. They're definitely one of my favourite species

I also have my black cheeked (not masked) lovebirds. They're extremely docile and live among the budgies (and diamond dove). They are very submissive and tend to just get on with life. The peach faced however will actively go out of their way to attack another bird I haven't had the black cheeked sexed yet but I need to as I was hoping on adding a few more to the flock to breed. It would be great to produce a more uncommon lovie species. They're coming out in a blue mutation at the moment. Not many around at all, but I'd love to snatch one up to make more! I also intend on having black masked lovebirds too. I like the eye ring lovebirds a lot more for their sweet nature

I don't know what I'm going to do with the outdoor bird room at the moment. I know we're going to completely strip it out and use the aviary panels from before to section off part of the room for our freezers (raptor food) and work benches etc. and I'm going to board up all of the walls and ceiling so I can paint them with a washable paint. Then it's either going to be rows of aluminium aviaries in there or cages. I haven't decided. But I know I need an alluminium aviary for the budgies because they've almost chewed through the outdoor one. I've had it for well over 10 years, more than that definitely. It's fallen to bits and been patched back up again. The weather battered it. I need a new one